Morbidity Risks in Subtypes of Unipolar Depressive Illness: Differences Between Early and Late Onset Forms | The British Journal of Psychiatry | Cambridge Core (original) (raw)

Summary

Despite the high prevalence of unipolar depression in the general population, few genetic studies are available on subtypes of unipolar illness. We evaluated morbid risks for depression, alcoholism and/or sociopathy in the relatives of early onset (before age 40) and late onset (after age 40) unipolar patients in a sample of 106 probands consecutively admitted to the New York State Psychiatric Institute. Unipolar patients with an early onset disease have a greater familial morbidity for depression, alcoholism and sociopathy than unipolar patients with a late onset disease. There is an excess of unipolar depression in female relatives of early onset unipolars when compared to late onset probands, regardless of the proband's sex. Alcoholism and sociopathy are also more prevalent in the relatives of early onset unipolars versus late onset probands. Our morbidity risk data show familial genetic differences between early and late onset forms of unipolar illness and partially confirm Winokur's concept of two subtypes of unipolar depression.

References

Angst, J. & Perms, C. (1968) Zur Nosologic endogener Depression: Vergleich der Ergebnisse der Untersuchungen. Archiv für Psychiatrie und Zeitschrift für die Gesamte Neurologie, 210, 373–86.Google Scholar

Baron, M. (1977) Linkage between an X-chromosome marker (deutan color blindness) and bipolar affective illness. Archives of General Psychiatry, 24, 721–7.Google Scholar

Baron, M., Klotz, J., Mendlewicz, J. & Rainer, J. D. (1981) Multiple threshold transmission of affective disorder. Archives of General Psychiatry, 38, 79—84.CrossRefGoogle Scholar

Belmaker, R. H. & Wyatt, R. J. (1976) Possible X-linkage in a family with varied psychoses. Israel Annals of Psychiatry, 14, 345–53.Google Scholar

Endicott, J. & Spitzer, R. L. (1972) Current and past psychopathology scales: rationale, reliability and validity. Archives of General Psychiatry, 27, 678–87.Google Scholar

Feighner, J. P., Robins, E., Guze, S. B., Woodruff, R. H., Winokur, G. & Munoz, R. (1972) Diagnostic criteria for use in psychiatric research. Archives of General Psychiatry, 26, 57—63.Google Scholar

Gershon, E. S., Targum, S. D., Matthysse, S. & Bunney, W. E. Jr. (1979) Color blindness not closely linked to bipolar illness: report of a new pedigree series. Archives of General Psychiatry, 36, 1423–30.Google Scholar

Helgason, T. (1961) The frequency of depressive states in Iceland as compared with the other Scandinavian countries. Acta Psychiatrica Scandinavica (Suppl.), 162, 1—251.Google Scholar

Mendlewicz, J. (1976) The age factor in depressive illness: some genetic considerations. Journal of Gerontology, 31, 300–3.Google Scholar

Mendlewicz, J. (1979) Juvenile and late onset forms of depressive disorder: genetic and biological characterization of bipolar and unipolar illness—a review. Maturitas, 1, 229–34.Google Scholar

Mendlewicz, J., Fieve, R. R., Rainer, J. D. & Fleiss, J. L. (1972) Manic-depressive illness: a comparative study of patients with and without a family history. British Journal of Psychiatry, 120, 523–30.Google Scholar

Mendlewicz, J. & Fleiss, J. L. (1974) Linkage studies with X-chromosome markers in bipolar (manic-depressive) and unipolar (depressive) illnesses. Biological Psychiatry, 9, 261–94.Google Scholar

Mendlewicz, J., Fleiss, J. L., Cataldo, M. & Rainer, J. D. (1975) Accuracy of the family history method in affective illness. Comparison with direct interviews in family studies. Archives of General Psychiatry, 32, 309–14.Google Scholar

Mendlewicz, J., Linkowski, P., Guroff, J. J. & Van Praag, H. M. (1979) Color blindness linkage to bipolar manic-depressive illness. New evidence. Archives of General Psychiatry, 36, 1442–7.Google Scholar

Mendlewicz, J., Linkowski, P. & Wilmotte, J. (1980) Linkage between glucose-6-phosphate dehydrogenase deficiency and manic-depressive psychosis. British Journal of Psychiatry, 137, 337–42.Google Scholar

Mendlewicz, J. & Rainer, J. D. (1974) Morbidity risk and genetic transmission in manic-depressive illness. American Journal of Human Genetics, 26, 692—701.Google Scholar

Strömgren, E. (1935) Zum Ersatz des Weinbergschen ‘abgekürzten Verfahrens’ zugleich ein Beitrag zur Frage von der Erblichkeit des Erkrankungsalters bei der Schizophrenic Zeitschrift für die Gesamte Neurologie und Psychiatrie (Berlin), 153, 784–97.Google Scholar

Tanna, V. L., Winokur, G., Elston, R. C. & Go, R. C. P. (1976) A linkage study of depression spectrum disease: the use of the sib pair method. Neuropsychobiology, 2, 52—62.Google Scholar

Winokur, G. (1973) The types of affective disorders. Journal of Nervous and Mental Disorders, 156, 82—96.Google Scholar

Winokur, G. (1979) Unipolar depression. Is it divisible into autonomous subtypes? Archives of General Psychiatry, 36, 47—52.Google Scholar

Winokur, G., Clayton, P. J. & Reich, T. (1969) Manic-Depressive Illness. St Louis: C. V. Mosby.Google Scholar